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LINKS TO THE SERMONS |
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| “Epiphany” Acts 10: 34-43 & Matthew 3:
13-17 It’s one of the most troubling theological questions generated by the New Testament: why did Jesus need to be baptized? John the Baptist was absolutely clear that his baptism was to repentance. Baptism was a remedy for sin. Here’s the conundrum, if Jesus was sinless, why did he need the baptism of repentance? Theologians have danced around that problem in ways that would make a politician blush. Some of the suggested solutions involve logical contortions that are borderline ludicrous. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that Jesus was not in fact sinless but he was the only one who knew that fact; so when John protested he insisted that the ends of righteousness might be served. Fortunately for the theological world, I have arisen to bring the definitive answer to the lingering question, why did Jesus need to be baptized? And the answer is, he didn’t – Jesus didn’t need repentance, John needed an epiphany. The baptism of Jesus was for the benefit of John, to confirm John’s ministry as the foundation and launching point for Jesus, but also as a personal divine confirmation for John of what he had been saying and believed with his whole being – that Jesus was the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the one whose shoe laces he was not worthy to reach down and untie. It’s one thing to believe it and to proclaim it, even to stake your life on it, it’s another thing to know it – in your heart and soul and guts – to know it at the core of your being with a knowledge beyond logic or rational process – a knowledge that is planted by the very hand of God as a gift to the faithful. That’s an epiphany. John resisted; perhaps anticipating all those theological difficulties that would arise from that illogical act. But Jesus didn’t care much about convention or convenient consistency. He said, “Come on John, Baptize me – ordain me to the ministry that you believe God has chosen me for.” And when he came up out of the water, the dove and the voice, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” It was a message and a vision for John, a divine confirmation of all that he had been saying to the multitudes who came from all over Judea. It was his personal epiphany. An epiphany is a sudden awakening, a startling revelation. It is that moment when you “get it.” It is the “Ah-ha!” moment. It is like Brigham Young looking over the valley of the Salt Lake and crying out, “Eureka, I have found it!” If the baptism of Jesus was a cartoon there would be a dove over Jesus’ head and a light bulb over John’s. It’s like Isaac Newton “getting” the concept of gravity; it didn’t come after hours of pouring over complex formulae, it came in a flash of revelation. This summer I went to Cambridge and saw where Newton studied. They had planted an apple tree outside the dormitory where he lived as a memorial. I thought when I was there that it was good that Newton didn’t attend the University of Hawaii; the apple tree would have been a coconut tree and the revelation would have been a concussion. Epiphanies, they are essential to Christian faith, otherwise we keep spinning off old stuff but following Christ is about the shockingly new. You can’t get there by logical thought procession. You get there by divine intervention, a sudden surprising revelation that goes right down to the core of your being. The founder of the Methodist Church had an epiphany. He wrote in his journal, “I felt my sins were forgiven, even mine.” It’s one thing to say, “God so loved the world,” but quite another to realize that God so loved me. His religion had been mostly an intellectual head trip and with the speed of epiphany it went straight to his heart. The light bulb appeared over his head and he said, “Eureka! The good news is not just for intellectuals, not just for people who are like me, not for wealthy people; the good news is for all God’s children and I must tell them” – and the rest is the world-wide Methodist Movement. It was an epiphany not unlike that of Peter the Apostle, who in a flash of revelation realized that all people were God’s chosen people, even the officers of the occupying army of Rome. He is in the home of Cornelius when the Epiphany occurs, Cornelius is the enemy, representative of Caesar, a pagan, the embodiment of everything Peter was trained to hate or at least mistrust. The story is the quintessential biblical commentary on prejudice. Prejudice is when we right off who groups of people as substandard or unacceptable – Samaritans, Communists, Arabs, Mormons, African Americans, undocumented emigrants. That’s what Cornelius represented to Peter. But in the story that leads up to this one, God says to Peter, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” I had an epiphany like that when I was in college. I grew up in Kansas in the fifties in a small town where the black people stayed on their own side of the tracks. I was taught that they were naturally lazy and not very bright, and they tended to smell bad which is why the tended to keep to themselves. I was not to tease them; I was to feel sorry for them and thank God that I had been born white. That world view worked for me until I got into a situation where I really engaged some black people. College. It was black guys who kept me on the bench at the basketball court – that was to be expected. But a black guy at the trophy factory where I worked always produced more parts per hour than I could. And in my New Testament Greek class, a black kid was setting the class curve. If these people were naturally dumb and lazy, what did that say about me? An epiphany will radically alter your would view. It happens in presidential politics every time there is another primary. Peter thought Cornelius was a heathen oppressor beyond God’s concern and certainly not included in God’s redemptive plan. But the Bible describes Cornelius as follows, “a devout man who feared God with his household, gave alms liberally to the people, and prayed constantly to God.” Peter needed to get his world view in line with God’s, that’s what epiphanies do. “I perceive,” says Peter, “that God shows no partiality.” Eureka! What do you know! All people are God’s chosen. All people are God’s children. Christ came to reconcile all people to God. John’s baptism started Jesus on his journey to that great end. It was a much more expansive vision than that which John was working from. Along the way even John would begin to wonder what Jesus was up to since he was operating out of a much larger mandate than even his closest disciples could grasp. So God gave John a personal epiphany to reassure him in the time ahead when things would turn hard and the doubts come. I received something of an epiphany when I was a teenager. Being the typical teen agnostic well on my way to being an intellectual skeptic, I had serious doubts about the very existence of God. I challenged God to convince me otherwise, and rather than sending me great orators with vast knowledge to persuade me, he sent me an epiphany – an undeniable, unexplainable inner knowing. I have subsequently come to understand that the epiphany was not to address my adolescent naïve ignorance but to fortify me for the journey up ahead – for the times when the church would disappoint and Christians frustrate – those times when well studied doctrines and well developed dogma would suddenly seem shallow and even silly. When some of the visible Christian leaders show up on TV and say embarrassingly stupid things - when the whole religious world view starts to crumble, what do you cling to; the blessed assurance that even if everything else is false, God is real and God’s love is unlimited, universal and eternal. It’s an implanted knowledge, separate from and untouched by any evidence either in support or to the contrary. This is the liturgical season of Epiphany, the time when we celebrate those revelations, some universal and some personal, that become the building blocks of faith and the solid rock that holds when all else fails. It’s a time to open our hearts to what God has to reveal to us, even if it challenges precious and dearly held world views – because it will. That’s what epiphanies do. But, what it leaves you is a certainty that holds when all else is called into question. It held when John the Baptist was arrested and faced execution by beheading. It held for Peter as he was called on to carry the word of Christ into a world and a people he had previously considered unworthy. It will hold for you as the absolute uncertainty of this new year unfolds and you discover that the truth God has planted in your heart is simply unshakable. Head knowledge is important; you can build a functional world view on it – a five year plan – a stock portfolio. But heart knowledge – on that you can build eternity. As always if you would like a DVD of a service please contact the church office. Thank you for visiting us. We will keep a few months up here at the site. As always if you would like a DVD of a service please contact the church office. Thank you for visiting us. |
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